the NSA planned to investigate at least 4,000 of its employees and contractors in 2013, thanks in part to new software that could detect "anomalous" behavior by the workforce.

He goes on to ask an extremely important question:

How do you run an organization where 4,000 of your employees are suspect? I fear that if the NSA tries to impose ever-more stringent controls, this will create even more disgruntled workers and a larger pool of anomalies. A new "Red Scare" may well follow the Snowden revelations, but making every employee a suspect is likely to backfire.

Even the most anodyne of organizations that can't fully trust 4000 of its employees is in big trouble; if it's one that handles some of the most sensitive information in the world, with the potential to save or cost many lives, that lack of trust is a recipe for disaster on a massive scale. And as Ignatius notes, the more the NSA tries to clamp down on people, the more likely it is to create further Edward Snowdens.

Ignatius also points out that the solution is not to close down, but to open up. By reducing drastically the number of things that are deemed secret in the first place, it would be possible to concentrate on protecting just those that really matter:

The beneficiaries in a no-secrets world will be relatively open societies, such as the United States, that are slowly developing a culture of accountability and disclosure for their intelligence agencies, however painful the process may be. The fewer secrets, the less to protect.

Although it's arguable to what extent the US has developed that "culture of accountability and disclosure" for the NSA yet, as President Obama inches towards admitting the scale of the problem here, the rest of the analysis in Ignatius' piece is well-worth reading.

Reader Comments

While we blame NSA analysts for developing privacy subversive tools and performing universal surveillance, looks like things are even worse at the workplace. Can't imagine talented people working under such conditions.

Sheesh. This clown thinks SPYING can be made warm and fuzzy?

Looks like more of the predicted normalizing; a limited hangout to acquaint dolts with the scale of spying, but then tone it down with diversions from the actual crimes. So now this clown thinks it's just a matter of workplace conditions? Sheesh.

At least try to remember that the hundreds of thousands people employed by NSA are still every minute of every day stealing your privacy and with it, your liberty.

Seems to me that a critical fact that should be ascertained before claiming dysfunction is "just how does this software work and what constitutes anomalous". Even things that seem trivial may have negative consequences, so it seems to me that acting prudently is not necessarily unreasonable.

Spying

Surely they should be able to use their database to check out people that they give security clearances to? It is not like they don't know who to check out, they will have name and phone number etc. right in front of them.

Arthur Dent

Every time I hear about the NSA having so much trouble keeping their house in order it reminds me of a section of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. At work so I can't look it up, but I think it's in the 5th book. Basically Ford hacked a mainframe, then tried to set up a subroutine to deny that the hack happened, only to find that the mainframe had loads of those running already.

Basically it a seems that the NSA is set up in a way where the whole organization has plausible denial of itself. The less you know the less you actually have to lie at those pesky oversight hearings

Spying

Spying

Surely they should be able to use their database to check out people that they give security clearances to? It is not like they don't know who to check out, they will have name and phone number etc. right in front of them.

Even that is not a certainty. Today the NSA and all others... are creating fake idendities to be used by their spies. Even if you were to verify these identities on line, you you only get what the NSA and others want you se see. A lot of these spies that infiltrate companies are trained at the NSA Spy schools on how to act and learn their role perfectly. There's just no way around.

Security through Obscurity

By keeping everything secret, the enemy doesn't know what the real secrets are. If we were to make less things secret the enemy would know exactly what secrets to go after. What the real secrets are needs to be kept secret.

Here's the snag though...

Ignatius also points out that the solution is not to close down, but to open up. By reducing drastically the number of things that are deemed secret in the first place, it would be possible to concentrate on protecting just those that really matter:

I think since they're so keen to keep everything they have a secret, it's likely that everything that wouldn't get them in trouble is already out there. If they're afraid of 4000 employees, it's likely that letting any of the 'secret' information out would cause problems.

It's what the public wants, and what the world really needs, but it's not what those in power want...because it means less power.

Re: Don't employ people you cannot trust

That sort of thing is pretty common, and it's so braindead wrong that you almost want to laugh. Employers who feel the need (real or imagined) to spy on their employees are in trouble. Either they are bad managers or they've hired bad people.

Really, any employer should only care about one thing: that the work is being done correctly and on time. You don't need to spy on people to determine if that's happening. It's self-evident.

Apples and Oranges

There are plenty of reasons not to trust the NSA, but worrying about their own employees isn't one of them. Fact is, every business suffers from some sort of 'loss', be it information or merchandise, be it for personal gain or industrial espionage. It is management's duty to prevent that loss.

How the management works to prevent loss, and what they do when it's discovered, are quite different stories than the mere fact they are working to prevent it.

Government employees are such lazy a$$es for one. I know because I worked at a local agency. All intelligence agencies should be disbanded. They use their "power" to do evil. I should know. They're probably reading this as I type. The things that these crooks are able to do is scary. Monitor phone calls, Internet activity, emails, listen to conversations in the privacy of your own home and watch you in your own home.